As we all know, Roman PODs are popular here, so I thought I would add mine to the list. I became interested in the idea of Roman construction of canals in Gaul a while ago when visiting Provence but never really looked into it any further.
It seems that navigation (rather than say agricultural) canals were not particularly common in the Empire and those that were made were usually rather short. Now I would imagine that would be largely a consequence of the usual issues with infrastructure - cost and benefit. However, it did seem that there was some interest by Roman leaders in building more or longer such canals, one connecting the Rhone with the Rhine and another further south, between the Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay. These loosely track the modern Canal de L'Est and the Canal du Midi. Neither ever it seems had any work done, for various reasons.
So the questions really are - is it feasible from a technological and financial basis to build say the Rhone-Rhine canal, would the investment be worth it in the medium-long term and if so, when is it most likely to be built
It seems that navigation (rather than say agricultural) canals were not particularly common in the Empire and those that were made were usually rather short. Now I would imagine that would be largely a consequence of the usual issues with infrastructure - cost and benefit. However, it did seem that there was some interest by Roman leaders in building more or longer such canals, one connecting the Rhone with the Rhine and another further south, between the Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay. These loosely track the modern Canal de L'Est and the Canal du Midi. Neither ever it seems had any work done, for various reasons.
So the questions really are - is it feasible from a technological and financial basis to build say the Rhone-Rhine canal, would the investment be worth it in the medium-long term and if so, when is it most likely to be built
